The land is yours! You can live on it! A soldier, having experienced many exciting and sometimes dangerous adventures and meeting many equally interesting people, still gets to his native village and what does he see? His native lands look as if Mamai and his troops walked on it - the fields are trampled, the cattle have disappeared, the houses are either destroyed or turned into ashes, and the surviving people hide in basements and in the forests. What happened and who is to blame? It turns out that the serpent Gorynych is to blame for everything - the cursed lehodya. He got used to it means to eat an animal in this village, but to frighten honest people, and when the common people became quite unfit, they asked the king to help their trouble, because the king does this and the king to take care of his subjects. Help? Oh, really! The tsar's troops took the last of the people, and as for the three-headed serpent, let him fly, because he does not interfere with the tsar-father. The common people burned down and were already going to run where their eyes look, but the soldiers stopped them and said - we will cope with this scourge, do not worry.
And he will cope, certainly cope, because a soldier from Russian folk tales relies not so much on strength, although he also has it, as on ingenuity and cunning. And now, having met two powerful enemies, the soldier did not turn their nose to nose, as would the characters of many foreign, and not only foreign, films, but instead he offered the king and the snake to work together and divide the land into two equal halves. Unexpected, isn't it? But the story is not about how two sworn enemies became best friends, in which case they would continue to gratuitously rob honest people, but that greed is bad. And a clear example of this, when the king and the serpent, after a hearty dinner, heard that in their sea the soldier was going to fish went to share the sea. Because they are the strongest, smartest, and in general, the first guys in the village, and therefore they and only they have the right to order music. Reminds me of some well-known officials/businessmen who can't stop in time, yes.
As for the heroes of history, they turned out to be bright and memorable characters. That soldier, who became a kind of Soviet response to Zorro, that fights injustice and helps others without demanding anything in return. That the king is an ordinary tyrant, who by his behavior and habits resembles a small child, to whom no one said the word “no”, so he stretched himself completely. That the Serpent, voiced by the "honorary Wolf" - Anatoly Papanov and thanks to which Gorynych even becomes pathetic, because he is a stupid scaly reptile that does what he knows - takes everything, gives nothing. I am not saying that the soldier did wrong, no, not at all, I approve of his act, just as a child, and even now, I was somewhat sorry for Gorynych despite all the outrages that he committed.
Outcome? A mild, interesting and whimsical cartoon that ridiculed the powerful and at the same time went to the common people who sat in dugouts and waited for a miracle. This is a cartoon with beautiful animation, stunning voice acting, excellent musical accompaniment and the right morality. And this is the cartoon that can be safely recommended to both adults and children.
9 out of 10